HAMPTON, Ga: You could say that Daniel Dye stunned the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN® Truck Series garage on Friday afternoon by capturing his first career pole for Saturday afternoon’s FR8 208 at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway.
Dye, in just his second Truck Series race with his McAnally-Hilgemann Racing team, fought off several challenges, including his teammates Tyler Ankrum and Christian Eckes, to earn the top spot in his 25th career Truck Series race.
On the heels of a 21st place finish in last Friday night’s Truck Series season-opener at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, the Deland, Fla. native aims to capitalize on the track position for Saturday’s race and contend for his first career Truck Series win.
“It’s really windy outside today,” offered Dye. “That first run that put us into Round 2 (the truck) was bouncing all over the place just the wind darting you. You get a real good run down the backstretch but that was a part of it.
“The surface was wearing out already a little bit, so that might have been a part of it. We were definitely more stuck the second run, I don’t know if that was maybe because the tires were warmed up a little bit and still had some heat from that first lap. But whatever it was, it was fast enough. (That’s) good, exciting.”
Looking to bookend his second Truck Series experience at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Dye isn’t sure what it will take to capture the checkered flag in the race, but Dye believes that if he is able to stay near the front, he will have an opportunity.
“I don’t know,” said Dye when asked what it would take to win. “The good thing about having two MHR trucks start on the front row is that all of us, between myself, Christian (Eckes), Tyler (Ankrum), Jack (Wood), and Grant (Enfinger), with the alliance we have and the relationship we have.
“It’s good to have five of our trucks inside the top-10. This race seems to have a little less movement than Daytona, so if we can get together and control the front of the pack that would be nice. Hopefully, we’ll put one of our MHR trucks in Victory Lane, and I wouldn’t be upset if it was the (No.) 43.”
With just one top-10 in his rookie season in 2023 with GMS Racing, Dye captured the attention of the garage with his speed at Daytona. A week later, to follow it up with his first career pole, Dye isn’t trying to get overconfident but rather relies on the confidence of his crew chief, Blake Bainbridge, who has assured his 20-year-old driver that he will have speed in 2024.
“It’s a cool story,” Dye explained. “You move from GMS (Racing) and I have the same crew chief and most of the same equipment. Blake, my crew chief, told me how excited he was and how fast we were going to be and all of that stuff.
“You see, in a football team, if you get four new good players and have a good trade season or whatever, your football team is going to be better. But it’s a weird with a race team. I haven’t been around enough to see that.
“I told him that I’m not going to be anymore excited until we get to the race track and we were faster. We made Round 2 (qualifying) and got the pole here. So yeah, I’m excited. Honestly, yeah, I’m pretty surprised we got it this quick or that we got it at all.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01 or email at [email protected].
